You guys! I think I’ve cracked it! A shiny, glossy, crackly topped brownie that is. I’ve made many a brownie sans the shiny, crisp top and they’ve ALL been delicious but when I realized the old blog was missing a classic (dare I say basic) brownie recipe, I knew I wanted it to be a deeply fudgy version with a perfectly crinkled glossy top. I tested this recipe several times with the same ratios and the common thread for the top was beating the eggs well into the butter/sugar/chocolate mixture.
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I’m ready for spring, are you? I live in the high desert right on the eastern side of the Sierras which means unpredictable weather, sometimes in the form of snow throughout springtime. Great for skiing but terrible for those of us that just want winter to be over already. We woke up this morning to bright sunshine on a blanket of snow (with more of the cold stuff to come in the forecast later today), so I’m just willing it to be spring in my heart with these springy carrot cupcakes.
Double Chocolate Bundt Cake! The double hit of chocolate in this cake comes from the dark cocoa batter plus a silky ganache glaze. I wanted to bring you a classic chocolate cake that strives for perfection, or at least my idea of it. I love a finely textured, tender-crumbed cake and this cake is exactly that. The velvety crumb comes thanks to the reverse-creaming method, which just means you beat all of the dry ingredients with the butter and most of the liquid before beating in the eggs. From how I understand it, this coats the flour with fat (BUTTER!) and helps keep the gluten strands short (like tender shortbread or shortcake) instead of long (like chewy bread or pizza crust) resulting in an ultra-tender cake crumb that is reminiscent of pound cake with a little less butter.
I love a no-bake dessert (who doesn’t?) and marshmallow crispy treats are one of the easiest out there. This version takes the classic and bumps up the flavor with tart freeze-dried berries and a little drizzle of white chocolate for good measure. When I was a kid my favorite variation had m&m’s in them and my mom always put them into dixie cups with a popsicle stick. I still love those, but now that I am a sophisticated adult (LOL, NOPE) I like this version even more–the berries add such a nice bright contrast to the marshmallowy treat–but are totally kid approved. My 7-year-old niece likes to give me notes on my baked goods and she said that you “get the sourness from the berries, the sweetness from the glaze (drizzle), and the crunch from the cereal. It has it all!” Which just about killed me because, I mean, adorable right? I totally agree with her, though, these treats are totally balanced with sweet + bright and make it dangerously easy to have more than one.
There seem to be two categories of lemon bars in this world–curd topped or chewy. If you follow my Instagram stories, you maybe saw the poll I posted about it. Most people fall into the curd category, myself included, but there were plenty of people in support of the classic, chewy lemon bars. I like punchy, tart lemon flavor and I think curd bars have more of those characteristics (sorry chewy fans!). I set out to make my perfect lemon bars with a silky and tangy curd on top of a rich, nutty base.
Of all the Baileys infused treats I made for this week, these chocolate cookies may have been the fave among my friends and family. Maybe we’re just a bunch of cookie monsters, but in my totally unbiased opinion (ha) they are chocolatey, chewy perfection. Think a chocolate chip cookie meets a brownie with that unmistakable Irish cream flavor. The cookie base is a riff on my basic chocolate chip cookies, swapping some of the flour for rich cocoa powder. There are white chocolate chips and walnuts in there for texture and a sweet+bitter balance. Baileys replaces the vanilla extract and even though there isn’t a ton of it in the cookies, the flavor is totally there making the perfect complement to the fudgy cocoa flavor.
Baileys Pumpkin Spice Pie! This is the kind of pumpkin pie I like to see in the Fall. I’m not super into the classic pumpkin pie, I like a lighter texture and some creaminess to the filling…enter this pie! The filling is a mixture of cream cheese, pumpkin puree, caramel sauce (yes, in the filling!), with some whipped cream folded in at the end for a lighter texture. The crust is a classic, buttery graham cracker shell–making this pie nearly no-bake and super easy to execute since you don’t have to fiddle with pastry. Piped swirls of whipped cream and a drizzle of caramel sauce make it feel fancy, no one needs to know how easy it is to whip up.
Baileys Coffee Custard Doughnuts!!! It is no secret that I am a lover of doughnuts, in fact, I have a doughnut friendship tattoo (with 
